Travels from California, USA
Mike Walsh's speaking fee falls within range: $30,000 to $50,000
CEO of Tomorrow, a global consultancy for business design, Mike Walsh is in great demand from leading companies worldwide, both as a consultant and a keynote speaker. A former senior strategist at News Corporation and currently board member/strategic investor at North Alliance, Scandinavia’s leading digital marketing group, his speeches open new realms of opportunity for business leaders negotiating the rapid shifts in the technological landscape.
Mike’s bestselling book FUTURETAINMENT was given the design award by the Art Director’s Club, and he has been widely published, featuring in BusinessWeek, Forbes and The Wall Street Journal amongst many others. His reputation as an expert and inspiring keynote speaker is reflected in the fact that he is now approaching a total of one thousand keynote speeches delivered around the globe.
While some forecasters attempt to make predictions far into the future, Mike expertly monitors emerging technologies and human behavioral patterns to provide businesses with innovative and workable strategies for today and tomorrow. He spends more than 300 days a year on the road interviewing leading innovators in the corporate field, enabling him to identify emerging trends and the opportunities they offer.
A keynote speaker at the Million Dollar Round Table, one of the world’s most important speaking events, Mike sends audiences away from his customized presentations full of new ideas and inspiration for transforming their business practice.
Mike Walsh is a futurist for leaders, internationally renown for his visionary and pragmatic insights on how organizations can leverage AI for reinvention.
A regular columnist for the Harvard Business Review, a strategic advisor to Fortune 50 corporations, and a global nomad – he is the author of three bestselling books, most recently: ‘The Algorithmic Leader: How to be smart when machines are smarter than you’. He has a rare talent for connecting emerging technologies, cultural shifts, and commercial strategies — crafting insights that bridge the present to the future with clarity, relevance, and a compelling touch of wit.
Mike Walsh is currently writing a landmark new book for Harvard Business Review Press, slated for 2026, that redefines what it means to lead in the age of AI. His argument is bold: AI is no longer just a tool, a chatbot, or a copilot. It is the foundation of a new kind of workforce—billions of autonomous digital agents capable of transforming how companies scale, compete, and create value. This is not science fiction; it is already happening inside the world’s largest organizations.
Together with his co-author Nitin Mittal, Deloitte’s Global Head of AI, Walsh has conducted dozens of conversations with the CTOs, CIOs, and senior leaders of global giants in industries as diverse as banking, energy, automotive, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and insurance. Their stories reveal a seismic shift: leadership in the next decade will not be about managing people alone, but about orchestrating hybrid organizations of humans and machines. This book is a manifesto for that future—and a call to action for leaders who must rethink strategy, culture, and competitive advantage in a world powered by digital labor.
At the heart of Mike Walsh’s work is a singular focus on redefining leadership for the AI age. Unlike other futurists who concentrate on predicting technological advances or broad societal trends, Walsh zeroes in on how leaders must fundamentally reimagine their role in a world where machines are increasingly capable of making complex decisions.
His key insight is that traditional leadership approaches, built for an analog era of predictable business cycles and hierarchical organizations, are no longer sufficient. Instead, leaders must develop new capabilities to harness data and AI while maintaining their essential human judgment and ethical principles.
Walsh believes that the real challenge isn’t just understanding the technology itself, but rather how leaders can adapt their decision-making, develop new mental models, and reshape their organizations to effectively combine human and machine intelligence. His emphasis on the human dimension of technological change makes his insights particularly valuable for business leaders navigating digital transformation.
On a personal note, Mike’s ethnic background is as diverse as his experiences. Born in Australia to parents of mixed Asian and European heritage, he has lived, worked, and traveled across many countries, embracing a truly global perspective.
A prolific writer and sought-after commentator, Mike’s insights have been featured in leading global publications such as Inc. Magazine, BusinessWeek, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal. As a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, he tackles cutting-edge leadership themes ranging from data-driven decision-making and agile organizations to algorithmic management and AI ethics.
Through his popular podcast Between Worlds, Mike engages with bold thinkers, innovators, and disruptors from across industries. He also produces The Future is Elsewhere, a YouTube series offering fresh perspectives from dynamic locations like Seoul, Mexico City, Tokyo, and Istanbul, bringing global trends and future forward ideas to life.
Mike is an accomplished author with three published books and a fourth on the way, focused on the future of AI Agents, set to release in early 2026. His most recent work, The Algorithmic Leader, provides an optimistic and practical roadmap for harnessing AI, automation, and algorithms to transform leadership and reshape organizations. The book has achieved global success, with translations available in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, Polish, and Russian.
In his 2014 release, The Dictionary of Dangerous Ideas, Mike foresaw groundbreaking innovations such as micro satellite networks, cryptocurrencies, remote work, life extension technologies, self-driving cars, drones, digital biology, digital activism, and the commercialization of space.
His debut book, Futuretainment, published by Phaidon in 2009, earned the prestigious Art Director’s Club design award in New York. It accurately predicted the impact of smartphones on media and marketing, as well as the rise of social media, digital influencers, streaming platforms, and the emergence of the Metaverse.
Rather than focusing on the distant future, Mike takes an anthropological approach – scanning the near horizon for emerging technologies and disruptive shifts in human behavior, and then translating these into pragmatic plans for digital transformation. A prolific writer and commentator, Mike’s views have appeared in a wide range of international publications including BusinessWeek, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal.
Constantly traveling the world for the best ideas, Mike spends more than 300 days a year on the road interviewing innovators, entrepreneurs and corporate revolutionaries to provide his clients and audiences with a fresh and compelling vision of tomorrow’s opportunities.
Over the last twenty years, Mike has delivered thousands of keynote speeches around the world to companies in almost every industry. His customized presentations leave audiences prepared and inspired to transform the way they do business.
Mike Walsh explores the challenges and opportunities new technologies present to every company. He explains how not only will your next generation of customers interact with you in new and unexpected ways, but also how that generation as employees will require a transformation in your management models and company culture.
Mike brings his own business experience and his wide-ranging research into the most innovative firms on the planet to present the consumer of the future. With the Internet allowing consumers more access to information and more control than ever before, Mike’s ideas will help you to reinvent your marketing strategies and optimize the power of your consumer interactions.
In addition to sharing his expert knowledge on keeping your consumers with you, Mike also has a wealth of visionary ideas concerning the need for companies to restructure to accommodate new technologies and the expertise in them of new generations. From redesigning your IT systems to analyzing data to allowing your employees to flourish commercially and creatively, you will leave Mike’s talks with the ideas and inspiration necessary to compete in the new marketplaces of the age of information.
Abundant Intelligence: How Digital Labor Will Rewrite the Rules of Business
As AI evolves from simple automation to autonomous decision-making, we stand on the brink of the most profound organizational transformation since the Industrial Revolution. This shift, driven by the emergence of AI agents capable of independent thought, decision-making, and action, will redefine everything from personal interactions to the very fabric of how businesses operate. AI Agents are not just the next step in digital transformation; they will also have significant economic and societal impacts. The question is no longer if AI will transform organizations but how quickly leaders can prepare to harness its full potential.
In this provocative keynote, Mike Walsh draws on cutting-edge research and real-world case studies to illustrate a future where companies reconfigure themselves as networks of billions of AI agents capable of tackling problems at a speed and scale unimaginable today. Walsh will present a compelling vision for how leaders can reimagine their operating models, governance frameworks, and workforce strategies to unlock unprecedented levels of agility and performance. Attendees will leave with actionable insights and a roadmap for integrating AI agents into their organizations, empowering them to thrive in an age of unparalleled innovation and disruption.
The AI-Powered Decade Ahead
AI should change what we do, not just how we do it. Over the next decade, we have a unique opportunity to fundamentally reimagine customer experiences, redesign how organizations work, and rethink how to solve problems more effectively. This is a defining moment for leaders, and our biggest risk is not machines taking over, but rather lacking ambition when it comes to the future. Many are already focused on deploying new tools and applications, rather than embracing a more radical vision for what might be possible.
Futurist Mike Walsh offers a compelling roadmap to 2035, exploring how AI, algorithms and automation will fuel a Fifth Industrial Revolution. Technology is only part of the story; real transformation requires a new cultural operating system. The next decade will not simply be about smarter workplaces or more efficient industries. It will be a decade of reinvention, where the foundations of the modern world are reengineered through next-generation AI infrastructure and new ways of getting things done.
The Future Favors The Bold
In a world reshaped by technological breakthroughs, shifting customer behaviors, geopolitical tensions, and the rise of machine intelligence, success belongs to those who dare to adapt, experiment, and learn at scale. Incremental improvements won't cut it. Progress demands radical reinvention—bold ideas that challenge convention, create new markets, and combine technologies in unexpected ways.
Transformation is not a checklist; it’s a journey paved by courageous decisions. It could mean championing a provocative idea, breaking a long-held rule, or hiring someone who challenges deeply held assumptions. The future isn’t an upgrade of the familiar—it’s an entirely new frontier. In an age of uncertainty, only bold leaders and even bolder teams will shape what comes next.
“Great job trying to get our industry to think about people first before developing technology. We are engineers at heart that just want to start building things, but many times we miss the mark.” Aaron Arvizy, Global Client Sales Director of Intel Corporation
“Insightful and entertaining at the same time, I loved the way you structured it, with concrete suggested actions. Useful ideas regardless of the business, so I suspect our customers will find great value in it. You are an excellent speaker.” Ai Leen Yeoh, Head of Customer Analytics of RHB Bank
“Dynamic, highly relevant and stimulating, with fresh and unique insights.” Nirvik Singh, Chairman & CEO, Grey Group Asia Pacific
“An eye opener!” Cyril Rickelton-Abdi, Director, Technology Development,Disney ABC Television Group
“Thank you for contributing to FOXTEL’s success!” Peter Tonagh, Chief Financial Officer, FOXTEL
“An ideal contribution.” Mark Scott, Managing Director, ABC
“Highly inquisitive and original. I recommend him highly.” Tony Faure, CEO, nineMSN
“Relevant, thought provoking content, and a dynamic delivery.” Beth Etling, Marketing & Content Director, ad:tech
“I would highly recommend Mike Walsh to any company who wants to get a clearer understanding of not what might be, but what is very likely to be.” Dave Marshall, Managing Director, Fujifilm Australia
“A real visionary.” Rob Antulov, Director of Strategy, Fairfax
“Insightful, clever, entertaining and informative.” Megan Brown, Head of On Air, XYZ Music Channels
“Inspiring!” Linda Bracken, Head of National Networks, ABC
“Fascinating! You should also write books on presenting technology topics to non-technology people. It’s a skill very few technologists have.” Nick Nero, Director of New Technology Strategy, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
“Your presentation was unbelievable. Scary but enlightening and challenging!” John Kukla, VP Creative Services, Fox
“Great session! To be perfectly honest, I′m sort of lost between being very excited and very frightened.” Andrew Donohue, Director, On-Air Promotions, NYCTV / NYC Media Group
“Enjoyed your presentation!” Gordon Ho, Executive Vice President of Content, Marketing and Business Development Strategy, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
“Great session, really insightful.” Joe Earley, EVP Marketing, Fox
“WOW!” Tom Lucas, Director of Marcomms, UKTV
“How bloody fantastic was your recent presentation here – loved it! Really accessible and with an excellent engaging delivery. The best such trot round the digital multi-media and multi-platform blah blah blah landscape I have ever heard – and I’ve heard lots of blah over the years – and not in a good way – unlike your blah! Smashing.” Richard Brunskill, Department Coordinator, ABC TV Arts, Entertainment & Comedy
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The Algorithmic Leader: How to Be Smart When Machines Are Smarter Than You
The greatest threat we face is not robots replacing us, but our reluctance to reinvent ourselves.
We live in an age of wonder: cars that drive themselves, devices that anticipate our needs, and robots capable of everything from advanced manufacturing to complex surgery. Automation, algorithms, and AI will transform every facet of daily life, but are we prepared for what that means for the future of work, leadership, and creativity? While many already fear that robots will take their jobs, rapid advancements in machine intelligence raise a far more important question: what is the true potential of human intelligence in the twenty-first century?
The Dictionary Of Dangerous Ideas The Dictionary Of Dangerous Ideas is a collection of the most challenging concepts facing business leaders at the dawn of the 21st century. At the intersection of emerging technologies and new patterns of human behaviour, the ideas in the Dictionary have been chosen for both their potential to transform the way companies operate, and inspire new forms of thinking.
What makes an idea dangerous is often not so much the idea itself as the troubling questions that it raises. Questions about the nature of reality, authority, society, and the boundaries between truth and heresy.
Global futurist and innovation expert Mike Walsh presents 88 scientific breakthroughs, emerging technologies and disruptive business models—all with the potential to shake the foundations of the world we know.
Each of the ideas are concisely explained in a single page, with references to the latest case studies and research, as well as some useful ‘mind grenade’ questions to prompt further discussion.
Fully illustrated with a custom typographic alphabet and original black and white photographs—The Dictionary of Dangerous Ideas is the essential companion for any leader who wants to understand what it will take to survive and thrive in the near future.
Futuretainment Over recent years seismic changes have taken place in the structure and direction of the media and entertainment industries. Since the launch of the first commercial web browser, to the advent of broadband, digital downloads and online virtual worlds, patterns of consumer behavior have adapted and evolved enormously, embracing new opportunities and having an indelible impact upon the commercial nature of media.
Mike Walsh has been at the heart of this consumer revolution from its beginning and has been helping some of the world′s leading companies and brands embrace new ideas for the past decade. The 23 insights in Futuretainment reveal how the rise of the Internet, mobile devices, social networking, audience networks, user generated content, ubiquitous networks and the ‘adaptive web’, amongst other advances, has affected the worlds of media and entertainment forever.
Futuretainment is a dynamic visual handbook offering an accessible approach to this complex and evolving subject. It is a must-read for any individual or business that wants to understand how to maximize their position in this new era.
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